Sunday, April 03, 2011

79 Firms Said To Be Operating in the North Tower of the World Trade Center Were Unknown to Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet published a "World Trade Center Business Listing," current "As of 9/11/01," which carried this heading:

The following is a list of those businesses that, according to Dun & Bradstreet's records, operated from an address at the World Trade Center. This information is representative of information in D&B's database as of September 11, 2001 and may be updated as additional facts become known. Please Note: In some instances there will be multiple records with the same name or a similar name. This may result from the existence of multiple business operations or divisions/affiliates within the World Trade Center. D&B requests that any reprinting, reproduction or redistribution of this information include the following notation: Source: Dun & Bradstreet - www.dnb.com

Dun & Bradstreet needn't have worried about getting credit for their summary. I am the first person to quote this record in almost a decade's time.

Perhaps that's because when collating the D&B WTC business records along with the first official listing of tenants put out by the Port Authority---released at the beginning of 2011 as the result of a FOIL request from members of the Let's Roll Forum---we find that 79 companies who were said to be occupying office suites in the North Tower on September 11th, 2001, were entirely unknown business entities to the Dun & Bradstreet record keepers. And according to the published lease start dates, many of these companies had supposedly been occupants for several years prior to 9/11.

The Dun & Bradstreet business listing for businesses operating at the World Trade Center contains nearly 1,300 business names, along with their identifying D-U-N-S numbers. If anything, it erred on the side of comprehensiveness. While it's possible that some businesses operated under separate "d/b/a" names, which might differ from their corporate names on the leases, this could only account for a small handful.

"Mr. Michael Berkeley, 38, the founder of the Berkeley Group, a securities brokerage-investment firm on the 79th floor of 1 World Trade Center."

Was he supposed to have had offices in the Alliance Business Center/International Office Center? The Berkeley Group is not mentioned in Dun & Bradstreet. Why was the loss of life so severe on the 79th floor? Was it because the employees there had such funny names?

ALLIANCE Business Centers NETWORK expresses our most profound sorrow and sympathy for the tragic events of September 11th. Our hearts go out to the victims and their loved ones who passed on.

"Olabisi Yee, Manager of the center for 18 years, Gricelda James, Cynthia Motus-Wilson and Rose Marie Carlson were trapped in the building and are presumed dead. We will miss them and we will never forget them."

RADIO SHACK 1WTC 25 145 12/1/1994 4/14/1999
[CNN has this as "Garban Intercapital N/A 55" in the South Tower, but this FOIA has no expired or active lease there; and this lease was written on August 1, 2001!]
GARBAN INTERCAPITAL SVCS, LLC 1WTC 25 2501 8/1/2001 1/10/2013

Cantor leased the 104th and 105th floor on August 10, 1979 for a term of 33 years until March 16, 201; May 15, 1995, CF leases half of 103rd; January 1, 1997, CF signs two leases for 101st floor; May 1, 1997, CF leases remaining half of 103rd floor; September 1, 1997, CF leases the remainder of 101st floor; April 1, 2000, CF leases part of 102nd; September 1, 2000 CF leases part of 102nd;